By PastorJohn on 3/5/2010 4:33 PM

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

It’s hard to believe, but my Son Daniel will be turning 7 this month, and Christine and I are finishing up our first year of homeschooling with him. Now, some have wondered if educating a child is a difficult endeavor: “Shouldn’t this be left to the ‘professionals’ with special degrees and training in education? And what about all the subject matter that you need to teach – science, math, reading, writing, history, foreign language…who alone is competent to teach them all?”  Indeed, when we started this year, we felt a bit overwhelmed, but, to our pleasant surprise, we’ve actually found that the teaching of content is actually one of the easier aspects of homeschooling.

I may not be an expert in many Read More »

By PastorJohn on 3/5/2010 4:26 PM

This is a new feature to our newsletter. Pastor John’s uncle, Maurice Bernier, is the music director for a church in Orlando, FL and he has given us permission to reproduce his newsletter articles for your enjoyment.

Isaac Watts, called the Father of English Hymnody, once said,

“The singing of God’s praise is the part of worship most clearly related to Heaven; but it’s performance among us is the worst on earth.”

Imagine a time when hymns were not sung in church services.  Congregations in England in the early 1700’s generally followed a practice started by John Calvin, that of creating translations of the Psalms into the language of the day for congregational singing.  The result was that it was usually a crude, dull and dreary affair.

Enter Isaac Watts.  He was born in 1674 to a famil

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